On the day of returning to her hometown for Tet, she could not even remember the way back, and after asking for a long time, she finally found the house she used to live in 16 years ago. Getting out of the car, meeting her mother and the whole family again, the whole family hugged each other and burst into tears when there was only 1 day left until New Year's Eve.
For many people, Tet is a matter of early or late air tickets, choosing this flight or that flight. But for many workers far from home, Tet is sometimes a very simple but lingering question: Will I be able to go home this year? Amidst increasingly expensive living expenses, rent, childcare, and medical expenses... a ticket home - especially a plane ticket - becomes a hard-reaching dream.
For decades, trade union trains and buses have not only been a means of transportation, but also a door opening up opportunities for union members for thousands of workers in difficult circumstances. That is also a vivid proof of the role of the Trade Union organization, which not only protects their rights, but also accompanies workers in the most important moments of life.
In recent years, with the joint efforts of businesses, trade union levels have organized more zero-dollar flights. Programs to take workers home for Tet have been implemented for many years, with increasingly expanding scale. If in 2023, Trade Union Flights only supported a few dozen to more than a hundred workers, then by Tet At Ty 2025, the number has increased many times. And Tet Binh Ngo 2026, it is expected that more than 550 workers will return home on meaningful flights right at the peak time of the Tet season.
That number, if viewed simply, may not be too large compared to millions of workers working far from home. But if placed in the actual context, each air ticket is a significant cost, each flight is the coordination of many forces, then this is a persistent, organized and deeply humane effort.
Along with flights, Trade Union trains with thousands of two-way train tickets, along with Tet gifts, or a series of Trade Union buses across industrial parks and export processing zones are also ready to roll. Those trains and buses go through the winter night, through long roads, carrying the excitement of workers returning to their hometowns in the true sense for the first time in many years.
From a broader perspective, programs to take workers home for Tet also have the meaning of stabilizing labor relations and social security. When workers are cared for at the right time, they have more faith to stick with the business and the place they are working in for a long time. A trip home may not solve all difficulties, but it is enough for workers to feel that they always have the Trade Union organization accompanying them.
In the moment the plane took off, the train left the station, and the car rolled away from the industrial park with 0-dong tickets, it carried the workers' belief in the close, responsible and always ready to accompany and support the lives of workers.
